Hosiery construction



J1me 1954 M. J. GORDON HOSIERY CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 29, 1952 .klll

Patented June 15, 1954 UNITED HG SIERY CONSTRUCTION Melvin .i. Gordon, Wellesley, Mass, assignor to himself, Sadye Z. Gordon, and Natalie G. Stone Application January 29, 1952, Serial No. 268,809

2 Claims. 1

The present invention relates to hosiery construction and more particularly to a construction relating to the welt of the full length full fashioned hose or other type of knit hosiery particularly for the purpose of preventing runs or tears in the hosiery from stresses which may be impressed on the hose during wear.

The invention is more particularly related to womens full fashioned hosiery which are held up when used by garters hanging from undergarments or by ring garters attached to the top band, or welt of the hose.

When the top of the hose has been drawn up taut so as to make the hose fit snugly to the leg and foot, all of the yield and give in the hosiery is taken up by the expansion due to the knitting construction. A knitted fabric such as is used in hosiery, permits lengthwise expansion or elongation and also lateral expansion to fit varying leg forms. Up to a certain point a certain amount of both lateral and lengthwise expansion is possible, but when once the leg has filled out the stocking, the stresses on lengthwise expansion may become very great under certain leg movements. When the leg has completely filled out the hose, a lengthwise pull tends to compress the flesh in the leg and if this is no longer poss ble because of the tightness of fit, there will be 1mnosed upon the threads in the hose, a tension which is directly in proportion to the lengthwise pull on the hosiery. When this has gone beyond the elastic limit of the threads, this usually results in a break in the hosiery thread and consequently one or several runs or tears in the stocking.

Such stresses which cause the breaking of the threads occur only under certain unusual conditions and ordinarily do not occur when the hosiery is being put on the leg. However if the hose fits quite snugly and has been pulled up even only fairly tightly to avoid later appearance of wrinkles or uneveness, it is very possible that during the wearing of the hosiery, certain movements of the leg increase the stress in the hosiery threads to such an extent that they may break. The applicant has found that this particularly occurs when the knee of the individual is bent, as under these conditions, the elongation of the threads at the front of the hose is suddenly increased considerably. If this elongation were not sudden, there would be an opportunity for the excess of the material in the underside of the knee to relieve the tension caused by the elongation around the bend of the front part of the knee, but where the pull is sudden, as when the knee is bent and the material at the back of the knee may be restrained in a crease in the flesh, the sudden strain around the long bend of the knee very frequently causes a rip at the knee or just above the knee of the stocking.

This pull which primarily occurs around the long bend of the knee may also impose sufficient stress at the underside of the knee to cause a rip or run at the back of the knee particularly when a garter is also used at the back of the leg in the vicinity of the seam when full fashioned hosiery is worn or the equivalent position in the wearing of other hosiery.

The applicant has overcome these difiiculties in the present invention by providing a yieldable element which relieves and shares the pull on the welt in an up and down direction. This may be provided through a yielding elastic material which extends beyond the top of the hose and. provides a projecting band to which the garter may be attached. Further advantages and improvements in the present invention will be understood from the construction of the same as set forth in the specification below when taken in connection with the drawings illustrating an embodiment of the same, in which:

Figure 1 shows a front View of the top welt band of the hose to which the present invention is applied.

Figure 2 shows a section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1, and,

Figure 3 shows a section of the modification of that shown in Figure 2.

The present invention may be applied to various types of knit hosiery but is particularly applicable to ladies hose of the full fashioned knit type in which the hosiery has a top band welt I of the usual type wherein the knitted material is turned over on itself to form two layers which join somewhat above the end of the reinforcing lower section of the welt. While this is the customary construction of a knitted welt in full fashioned hosiery, the invention equally applies to a single layer top welt also to the top section of a hose whether it is a reinforced welt or not. Hereinafter however the term welt will be used as a means of identifying the border section at the top of the hosiery to which the present in vention is applied.

On the inside of this section there is attached an elastic band 2 which may be of comparatively thin fabric, elastic webbing from about A" to 3 wide, positioned in an up and down position with respect to the hosiery with the lower end of the fabric strip attached to the welt of the hosiery by stitching, cementing, interweaving or other means indicated at 3, to the welt or band of the hosiery itself. The elastic webbing strip 2 is joined to a second strip 4 which may be of the same width along a line of stitching 5 (Figure 2) at one end of the section 4, while at the other endthe section 4 is also attached to the welt or band I of the hosiery at the top of the welt by stitching 6 or by other suitable means which may be cementing, stapling, or interweaving at the top of the welt. Over-cast stitching is also adaptable for attaching the top edge of the strip 4 to the: top of the welt and this is particularly useful since it provides a finishing edge. The junctions of the strips 2 and 4 with the welt l at 3 and 6, form a corner construction in which the section of the strip 2 between its lower attachment at 3 and its upper attachment to the strip 4 at 5, provides a length which is equal to or longer than the length 4 from the attachment at 5 to the top of the welt 6.

It has been found by experiment that a very useful proportion is for the length of the strip 2 to the attachment 5, to be about twice that of the length of the strip 4.. As indicated in Figure 2, the strip 2 continues in an end section I which extends in the position indicated in Figures 1 and 2, below that of the stitching 3. In fact however when in use the portion I of the strip 2 serves as a garter attaching element and for this purpose, the portion 1 may be reinforced or may have a surface pad applied to it in which the garter can be set. The combined length of the sections 2 and 4 from their points of junction to the attaching ends at the welt are substantially equal to the distance along the welt material between the stitching B and the stitching 3. When therefore the section I of the strip 2 is attached to the garter when the hosiery is on the leg, a downward pull because of the bend of the knee or for any other purpose, will stretch the yielding elastic fabric 2 and permit the welt to adjust itself downward as the lastic fabric 2 is being stretched.

As a result of this there will be no particular strain upon the welt section 1 between the stitching 3 and the stitching 6, and the stretching will be entirely taken up in the strip 2 at its lower section and the top section of the strip 1 as well as in the section 4 which will in a position in use, extend upwards beyond the stitching 5. The sup port therefore for the garter will have its stresses transferred to the attached strips attached to the welt and only a comparatively nominal stress will be imposed upon the welt itself.

In addition to this a considerable yielding area will be provided through the extended attachment and the garter may therefore be secured in its proper position without the necessity of pulling the welt of the hose out of its normal form for applying the garter. These features have proved to provide definite advantages in preventing the runs and breaks and also in giving a more comfortable fit and wear.

Figure 3 shows a structure quite similar to that shown in Figure 2, in which the yielding elastic garter attaching strips are similarly secured at 3 in the lower region in the welt and at 6 in the top margin of the welt. The yielding elastic strip 2 has a number section 1' to which is attached a short section 4. The primes in Figure 3 correspond to the same numbers in Figure 2. The junction of the strip 4 to the strip 2 is effected by a splicing joint 5 which comes approximately at the same position as the corresponding number in Figure 2. The section 7 of the strip 2 is shown in position in Figure 3, extending upwards from the hose in an approximate position to be attached to the garter. As the member 1' is stretched upwards, the strip 4' will also extend upwards and eventually the junction 5' will be up beyond the position of the top of the welt where the stitching 6 is located.

The junctions 5 and 5 may be nearer the top of the welt than the bottom and the length of the strip or combined strip from the stitching 6 to the stitching 3 may be approximately 1 /2 to 3" long, equal to approximately one-half the width of the welt or greater. The elastic must be sufficiently long to allow the necessary stretch in a full knee bend.

While the invention has been shown applied in one position to the full fashioned hose, the same arrangement which is applied to the front of the hose diametrically opposite to the position occupied by the seam may also be applied in other positions along the top of the welt of the hosiery.

The extension of the strip I beyond the top of the hose permits a stretchable adjustment of the garter which may be adapted to an undergarment.

In the present invention sufiicient length of the strip i is provided so that normally the garter may be attached to the strip at just the desired position to permit afull bend of the hose without imposing undue stresses around the bend of the knee on the hosiery. This effect is accomplished to a greater degree where the attachment of the elements 2 and 2' is lower down in the welt, as in this case the direct pull on the hose from the stitching 3 along the stretchable element 2 is through a longer piece of material than if the attachment were at the top of the hosiery. However if the stretchable element pulled from the top of the hosiery, there would still be a greater lee-way for adjustable attachment of the garter than if the garter were directly attached to the hosiery.

Having now described my invention, I claim:

1. In combination with a full length hose, a garter attaching means comprising a flexible yielding elastic strip having the bottom end secured transversely in the lower part of the top welt, a similar connecting strip having one end secured along the top of the welt and the other end secured to said first elastic strip at a distance from the bottom end of said first elastic strip substantially less than the distance across the welt between the points of attachment to the welt of said branches, the portion of said first elastic strip between its attachment to the welt and the point of securement of said second strip being capable of stretching at least twice the length of said second mentioned strip, and said first elastic strip having a free top end extending beyond the top of the welt.

2. In combination with a full length hose, a garter attaching means comprising a flexible yielding elastic Y-shaped strip, having the end of one branch secured transversely in the lower part of the top welt, a second branch secured along the top of the welt and the third branch having its free end extending beyond the top of the welt, said first mentioned branch having a length subsantially less than the distance across the welt between the points of attachment to the welt of said first and second branches and said first mentioned branch being capable of stretching at least twice the length of the second mentioned branch.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,281,523 Corlew et al Oct. 15, 1918 2,494,901 Rubel Jan. 17, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 22,058 Great Britain 1907 204,268 Great Britain Sept. 27, 1923 

